Anticipation is the heart of EDM’s appeal, and nothing embodies this anticipation better than tension-relieving beat drops and monstrous finales.
These would be the ideal checkboxes for A. G. Cook, an English producer and electronic spearhead known for his ultra-chaotic aesthetic, deconstructed music and glitchy logic behind hyperpop since founding PC Music in 2013. However, his newest album, The Moment (The Score) opts for more predictable dancefloor beats and one-note drone cinema, coming at the expense of the record’s engagement.
The ten-track collection serves as the soundtrack for longtime collaborator and quasi-labelmate Charli XCX’s recent mockumentary of the same name, marking her stylistic and conceptual musical pivot away from the rebellion and imperfection that defined her brazen 2024 BRAT era.
Though The Moment (The Score) pulls back from brazen to agreeable, in doing so, it plays it too safe. The album sounds overly ordinary and contrived, operating purely out of an expected and formulaic EDM mold.
The first leg of the album proves hard to get through — the tone set by dialed-back dance beats and muffled rage on “Residue,” unceremoniously fading out into a heavenly aura of synths minutes later. The compositional segments of the song are unadventurous and incohesive, making the final product a passionless dance number, even if the synth-work toward the middle sounds fantastic.
On “Momentism,” the song goes from off-kilter production to lazy, hypnotic synth passages within less than two minutes. Similarly, “Don’t Sleep” feels uncaptivating and inconsequential, making it hard to fulfill its title’s wish. Being four minutes long, the song lacks Cook’s extravagant instrumental detours and seamless chaos.
What does work well is “Offscreen,” where Cook finally latches onto his signature: lots of quirk, glitch and color. On “Fraud,” a non-stop, epic maelstrom of thumping bass and distant boomwhackers bursts into a synth-heavy finale with undulatory whiplashes, allowing Cook to showcase that he can make the subdued aesthetics work.
The second leg of the record doesn’t truly fascinate either. Although “Depth (Reprise)” feels like free-floating through a cybernetic oasis, the song does not develop much outside of its weary atmosphere and eerie single-note ostinato, and thus remains unexplored and unthorough. Likewise, the moody backdrop of wistful lingering keys and earwormy digital swells of “Removal” leaves more to be desired.
According to Vanity Fair, Cook found it “suspiciously easy” to craft this soundtrack — and it sounds like it due to the downgrade in quality from his previous works. The Moment (The Score) performs instead of punches, causing Cook’s authenticity and presentation to both take a hit.
HIGHLIGHTS: FRAUD, OFFSCREEN
2 tame impalas out of 5.
